The present invention relates to a structure of a card insertion port employed in an equipment, e.g., a card type public telephone set, that utilizes a card, and a method of mounting a card insertion port member.
Generally, in the card insertion port of a public telephone set used for performing speech communication by inserting a prepaid card (to be referred to as a card hereinafter) that records value information of a prepaid amount, a card intake port is formed at the distal end portion of a card reader incorporated in the public telephone set, and a card insertion port member, in which a card insertion port aligned with the card intake port is formed, is directly mounted to the distal end portion of the card reader. The card reader is mounted in the public telephone set such that the card insertion port is exposed to the outside through the opening of the front case of the public telephone set.
However, in the conventional structure of the card insertion port described above, since the card insertion port member is directly mounted to the card reader, when an impact is applied to the card insertion port exposed outside the public telephone set, the impact acts not only on the card insertion port member but also the card reader main body. If the card reader is partly damaged or broken by this impact, the entire card reader must be exchanged, which requires an extra maintenance cost. Also, since a new card reader must be mounted by removing the damaged card reader from the public telephone set, the exchange operation is cumbersome.